I don’t know about others, but I was terrified of thunder and lightning when I was a child. So scared, in fact, that I used to hide in the wardrobe, waiting for the storm to pass.
That only happened when it was just me and my brother at home. Things were a bit different when our grandmother was there. She’d light a blessed candle she kept from Easter and tell us it would protect us.
We were skeptical, but still—it was something.
An adult to anchor us.
But when my father was around, we witnessed a completely different strategy:
He would tell us nothing bad would happen and that it was important to be brave.
He’d go outside in the rain to show us that fear was only in our minds.
Meanwhile, I’d imagine dragons descending from the sky, riding bolts of lightning, ready to devour him.
Looking back, there were three types of “actors” at play—each with their own strategy in the face of the storm:
- Hide and hope it’ll pass.
When you’re a child, maybe that works for a while. Emotions rule, imagination runs wild—clouds take the shape of friendly puffs one moment and monstrous threats the next. The moon follows you, new stars appear when a child is born, and one falls when someone dies—just a glimpse into the rich inner world of a five-year-old raised by a grandmother who was herself afraid of storms. - Anchor yourself to a symbol.
Like the candle in the story above—investing an object with protective powers, praying, hoping someone or something will look after you. - Face it with logic and courage.
This is the grown-up strategy. You look at the storm, assess it, and decide how to move through it. You don’t deny fear—but you don’t let it run the show either.
In life, we encounter many kinds of storms.
Some come at the macroeconomic level. Others strike in our companies, our families, our inner worlds.
Crises—big and small—are inevitable.
But how we choose to handle them is up to us.
Some remain like the five-year-old: frozen, passive, hiding, hoping not to be seen. Like kids at school who, terrified they’ll be called on, stare at the ceiling, inspect their nails, or count their fingers.
Others—well into adulthood—still hope that someone or something will protect them.
Hope is not wrong. But action is what truly moves things forward.
The approach that holds the most promise in the long run?
The brave one.
Confront the challenge. Face the fear.
Find ways to win—or at least move through it with dignity.
It’s like choosing to go out and dance in the rain.
via: Psychologies